Display of art before modernism and 'white cube' practices

First of all the lecture started with Stella talking about the 'Display of art before modernism' and 'White Cube Practices. Going back to how art work was displayed in places of worship and churches, for people to look at and treasure generation after generation. Places such as the Sistine Chapel in Rome display beautiful works of art that relate to the meaning of the building itself.



Weathy peoples collections back in Renaissance Europe displayed their work in Curiosity Cabinets which were also called a 'Wunderkammer' - a wonder room.

Many of the rich also had art work displayed in their grand houses to astonish and welcome guest with beautiful images. The art work showed the rich and wealthy in their countries and many of the men were shown on their high steed horses to represent power and wealth.

However, many years later, abstract artists such as Piet Mondrian, embraced the modern concept of simple structures. Showing their work in a simple basic manor that differ completely from the 14th Century style of cluttered art work.
“The painter himself must be white, which is to say, without tragedy or sorrow..the artist’s studio must resemble high-mountains topped with snow”- Theo van Doesburg

         Art moved quickly from Europe to America, displaying art in a more conformed and simple manor. Alfred H. Barr believed that modern art was developing towards abstraction which essentially limited many artists who were outside of this bracket. Barr was the first director of Moma in New York and the art centre was privately funded and relied on the support of rich individuals to keep it going. The rich were the ones to introduce America to modern art and essentially limited the way it was displayed, like it was a fashion trend.  

                                                                           

Here is what the Moma looks like inside today... 

         The White Cube space was essentially designed to isolate everything. To not distract from the artwork so that the viewer would appreciate the art. The windows are blocked out and therefore artificial light is used to create an isolated and unusual feeling of being away from the whole world to look at this imaginitive artwork hanging in a simple white room. 

However, many artists have found the 'white cube' effect daunting and bland to look at artwork in and have rebelled against this idea of showing their art and photography work in this way.  Photographers such as Kuba, Kutlug Ataman show their work in an unusual space to relate to the meaning of their work...

 

Christian Boltanski also displays his images in places that relate to his work such as Churches... 

I have always walked into an art gallery and wondered why the walls were always white. Having visited many places of royalty, I have always been more fascinated about the way they choose to show artwork. I walk in and it is all around me. On the ceilings, walls and even the floors. Whereas the modernistic style of the 'white cube' I find bland as it makes no meaning for the images.

Fundraising

For my part in the exhibition, I volunteered to help get fundraising. I therefore came up with some ideas of businesses to email such as Waitrose and Co-op. 

                                  However, I had been emailed a couple of days before about a Photograph that I had displayed in Guildhall in April to be displayed in St Mary's hospital in November. The exhibition was set up by the League of Friends who I thought would be great to contact about helping us out with our exhibition. I therefore emailed the League of Friends but am still waiting for a reply. Here is the email that I have sent them...                  

Dear Alison,

For my second year in Photography at the University of Portsmouth, we are required to organise an exhibition to show our current project photographs in. I am in a group of 10 people and I am assigned to gain funding towards the exhibiton. I was wondering whether I could gain any funding from the League of Friends to help us fund our exhibiton. The money would help us to get a space to show our work and also to provide food and drink for our opening night.

Many Thanks again,
Lauren

I also sent an email to Waitrose in Southsea as I discovered that they give away 1000 to good causes in Portsmouth every month. We are not asking for that amount of money but I thought it would be a good idea to get in contact to see if we could get a small percentage of that money for our exhibition. Here is the email that I sent...

Dear Madam or Sir,

I am a Photography student in my second year at the University of Portsmouth. For our Level 2 Brief, we are required to create a piece of photographic work which explores the photographic representation of territories. We are also required to work in a group and find a venue in Portsmouth to exhibit our photographs in. To do this, we have to research venues and how much it would cost to rent the space out. To help with the costs of getting a venue, we are trying to gain support from any local businesses that could help with funding the exhibition. As my family shop at Waitrose in Southsea everyday, they have told me that the store give away £1000 to three different causes every month. We are not asking for that amount of money, just a small percentage of that to fund our costs for renting out a venue, printing our work, and food and drink for our exhibition that will be held at a venue in Portsmouth. We are also making posters for the exhibition and therefore we could put the Waitrose logo on our posters displaying that you have sponsored our exhibition, if you wish to. Please let us know if you could fund us.

Many Thanks,
Lauren Whatling

I also had to contact South Parade Pier about using their venue. I sent a text to Wayne and he gave me his email address in which I sent him this email...

Hello Wayne,

I am a student at the University of Portsmouth studying Photography in my second year. For our first second year project, we have been assigned to find a location to display our first projects work in. I have worked as a Waitress at South Parade Pier before and admired the space in the venue and also that it attracts alot of visiters. Therefore, South Parade Pier would be a great place to hold the exhibition as it is spacious and would hold alot of people for our exhibition. We would need the space around november/december time. Please let us know if this would be possible and if so, how much would the venue cost to rent out.

Many Thanks,
Lauren Whatling

Wayne replied with this email...

Hi Lauren,

Which date would be best for you & how long would you want the room for? We have quite a few events November/December time, Just need to check we have it free. Would you want the big room (Gaiety)? Or the smaller room (Albert)? How many people will be exhibiting?

Thanks, Wayne.

This would be a great opportunity to exhibit there so I therefore have replied saying that we need the big room and asked how much it would cost to rent this space.

I also thought about how much money I had made from selling bits and pieces on Ebay over the summer and this would be a fun and easy way to get money for our exhibition. I therefore need to ask members of my group to search for old clothes etc for me to sell on ebay.

 

                

                                                                                       

                                                                                                                  

     

First Meeting 3/10/11

For our first meeting, our group ran through the points that we discussed on our first getting together to organise the exhibition. We agreed that John would look into exhibiting at Gunwharf and Bill would also look into properties that we could display our work in or any other locations. Here is the feedback that we had from John and Bill...

 John spoke to John Sackett at Gunwharf about using the Waterside property however, they are looking for long term rentals. It may not be possible to use this facility but emails can be sent out with enquiries.  

John also spoke to Graham at the dockyard museum about using the location there however, no success due to the gates closing at a certain time. 

John also contacted Fratton Park however, the location needs to be rented and therefore alot of fundraising would need to be done.

Bill looked into exhibiting with Canalside properties in which this could be possible. Bill also contacted housing agencies to see if there were any properties to display our work in however, access could be an issue due to small hallways. Kings Church was also looked into and this would be possible however, the cost of renting may be high and the content of our images may be too risky to display in a church.

Tyran also contacted the round tower and square tower which would be a perfect setting to display our images in. We are waiting for costs of renting out the space and which dates are available to do the exhibition as there are weddings etc going on around the same time. 

 As a group, we also discussed other possible locations such as South Parade pier. Fortunately, I have worked there before so have the managers number so I can therefore text him and ask for his email to discuss about renting the space out.

Some other points we discussed in our meeting was that we all needed a fair share of organising the exhibition. We therefore assigned each other to research certain points that needed to be done in order to create and further the exhibition. Here is what each person got assigned to...

Locations – John, Bill and Tyran
Publicity – Justyna and Viktorija
Online – Lauran and Chris
Fundraising – Lauren Whatling
Audience and Community- Lily and Claudia

I was assigned to do the fundraising for the exhibition so I shall therefore email local businesses and find ways to raise money for the exhibition. 

Introduction to Project and use of blogs

Today was my first lesson of Project Management of the semester. First of all we were introduced to our aims and outcomes of what is expected of us for this unit, which is to organise an exhibition and present our documentary practises 'Territory' photographs within the exhibiton. We were also told that the exhibition could be presented in various creative ways that can differ from the 'White Cube' exhibitions that don't quite show off the meaning of our work. To get us all into the beginning thought processes of how we would present our photographs in a different way, we were shown various photographers who exhibit their work outside of the 'white cube' in ways such as in the streets, through shop windows and also using places such as abandoned buildings to show their work in. 

We were shown Doug Aitkens work which in particular fascinated me as he displayed his work on buildings.

We then had a talk from Level 3 students, who talked about their experience from Level 2 and gave us some inspiration and guided us on how we should go about planning our exhibitons. 

We were then all told to get into four groups of 15 and in our group of 15 people, discuss how we would go about organising our exhibiton, how we would manage our group and give roles to individual people so everyone is included, what type of space we would use and how we would go about getting the space for the exhibiton and how we would publicise it. We had twenty minutes to get into a group of 15 and then brainstorm all our ideas.

I got into a group with the following members : John, Justyna, Chris, Lauran V, Victoria Z, Lily, Claudia, Tyran and Bill. Here is the brainstorm of ideas that we created ...

 Our group really liked the idea of setting up an exhibition in Gunwharf and the dockyard. Therefore, we assigned John to get in contact with Gunwharf to see if we could eventually set up an exhibition there.


Bill then agreed that he would contact his past landlords to see if the group could rent out a house to hold the exhibiton in. Justyna and myself also said that we could contact a few housing agencies and see if this was possible.

Victoria also agreed to set up a Facebook group so that all members of our group could contact each other about ideas and to organise meeting times. 

After presenting our ideas to the other groups we decided we needed to look more into funding and how we could publicise the exhibition. So therefore, we organised a meeting date of Monday afternoon to discuss our ideas further.